Beaver Creek, CO

Over US Thanksgiving weekend, JJ and I flew to Denver to visit his brother's family. We got to hang out with the family for a bit and then we drove 2 hours to Beaver Creek after Thanksgiving dinner. My lesson the next day started early so we figured this was the way to go.

When we got to Beaver Creek, we could see the stars! Lots of them! That's what I love... in the mountains, not too bright so you can see the stars, but still have first class accommodations! The one bedroom condo we got was huge and not too expensive either! The kitchen was fully stocked with glassware and appliances and the bathroom was huge too complete with a jacuzzi! The condo is actually owned by this couple and the entire lodge is rented out like a hotel. We signed their guest book and everyone agreed on how much they love the place!
The condo:


Upper Borders Lodge:


Beaver Creek village is really nice.





They have free cookies in the morning and in the afternoon too!

It wasn't too crowded that weekend so there weren't long lift lines.


I spent most of the first day on a bunny hill getting comfortable with the heel edge and a little toe edge and doing the falling-leaf.
JJ went exploring and did some blacks since he didn't have me around haha. He got some nice shots that day! It was a little warm so the snow near the base of the mountain was kinda melty and there wasn't much snow on the nearby hills.

It was much nicer near the top where JJ went on the first day.

You can see those jagged snowy peaks in the distance.


For both the first and second day, I only got maybe 2-3 hours total coming down a green. In my group lesson, one girl kept slowing us down. She never wanted to go up the hill... one run and she'd be done. JJ and I decided that it was probably best that I didn't go on the third day and that he'd just take me up to the top where the nice snow is and on the green runs.

The first night, we went to check out the Tree Lighting Ceremony. They had really fancy fireworks! Those huge ones!

There were so many people so we just settled for this mexican place to get a dinner quick to beat the crowds.

On the second night, we had a much more satisfying meal at Rocks Modern Grill in one of the lodges right in the village. It is self-proclaimed "upscale casual dining" and I had no idea what that meant until we got there. The prices were really reasonable, the decor was modern and upscale looking, and the food was great! There was this "early bird" special (it ended at 7pm) where you could add a salad and dessert to your entree for only $5 more. WOW!
A crab dip appetizer:

Yummy salad:

JJ had the prime rib special:

I had the ribs:

Apple cobbler dessert was fantastic too!

On the third day, it SNOWED! Yaaaay! You can actually see snow on the nearby hills.


Check out that toe-side turn :)


We went up the Centennial Express after a practice green run near the base



We had lunch at the Spruce Saddle near the middle of the mountain. It's behind us in this picture.


Their pasta was reeeeeally good!


From the lodge, you had a clear view of a snow dump happening in the distance.
(That snow eventually made its way to us.)

We went up even higher after lunch where the green runs were at the top of the mountain.




That pretty much concludes our trip...


We spent Monday morning with Young and the kids and then made our way back to flat Chicago... I want to go back to the mountains and snowboard!!!

Koryo brunch

It's always hard when a restaurant tries something new... we had a little bit of a disastrous dinner at the new Hai Yen on Clark (the Argyle one is much better).

Koryo decided to try this new all-you-can-eat lunch thing. They don't really have everything worked out yet and honestly, we didn't think their sushi was that good. This all-you-can-eat was really well presented. However, one has to question how much effort needs to go into presentation when it really is just an all-you-can-eat.

Looks-better-than-it-tastes sushi:

Korean calamari with dumplings in the background:

Bulgogi-stuffed mushroom:

San Francisco!

The CAS annual meeting was held in San Francisco this year. I was going there to be officially recognized as a new Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society so Donna and I took the opportunity to go a few days earlier and get in a weekend mini-trip. We only had the weekend together before she had to fly back but we still got in a lot of sightseeing.

We were so tired the first morning because my flight didn't get in until 2am. Donna's friends Kevin and Melissa had picked her up from the Oakland airport and she waited up for me until 3am. Kevin was nice enough to let us stay at his place on a comfortable but constantly deflating air mattress.

First thing the next morning, Kevin drove us to Twin Peaks where we had amazing panoramic views of the city. Too bad the weather was a little gloomy.


We then went to Powell station to grab some visitors maps and the MUNI bus passes. We were hoping to catch a ride on the cable car but the line was always so long that we eventually gave up. Along a busy section of Market Street, a poorly-attended Veterans' Day Parade caused a lot of traffice jams but we eventually made it out to Fisherman's Wharf for my first ever In-N-Out Burger. As with any of our trips, this one came down to being all about food.

We saw some seals at Pier 39 and wandered around the Fisherman's Wharf area where we saw this guy soliciting people for a $10 boat tour aboard what looked to be a regular fishing boat. It looked a little sketchy at first, but the Wacky Jacky took us under the Golden Gate Bridge

and around Alcatraz

all in just the right amount of time (under an hour) and the tour guide was very funny, politically incorrect, and informative. We had a much better time on that than we would have on a "real" tour boat at more than twice the price, twice the length.

Back at the wharf, we saw the Boudin Bakery museum where they bake their famous sourdough bread into crazy shapes.


Lombard street, the so claimed "world's crookedest street" was a short hike away so we went to check that out.


Although Lombard street was not that far, the problem with San Fran of course, is that everywhere you go, it always seems like you're hiking uphill at ridiculously steep slopes. We were pretty wiped out so we decided to stuff ourselves with seafood and call it a night. Cioppino, seafood platter, and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl. Excellent.


Sunday, we only went to a couple of places and walked a lot in the process (but *less* uphill). We went through the Marina area, beach, and up to the Golden Gate Bridge.


Then found our way to Postcard Row, a very famous scene for all you closet Full House fans.


While we were sitting around waiting for Donna's relatives to pick us up at Alamo Square, we spotted a hummingbird flying around in front of us so we took out the big lens and caught our first ever hummingbird picture.


We met up with Donna's relatives who invited us over to their house and served us some homemade soup (as well as repeatedly offering us ice cream).

I'm glad Donna got to catch up with her relatives before they dropped us off at the Hyatt Regency where the CAS Meeting was held.

Donna went to eat in Chinatown with her relatives the next day before they were so kind enough to drive her to Oakland to catch her flight back to Chicago.

Here are all the photos!

San Francisco Day 1

San Francisco Day 2

San Francisco Day 3

Mon Ami Gabi - Birthday dinner!

JJ took me to Mon Ami Gabi for dinner for my birthday.


It was too dark to take any GOOD pictures of food... but I did manage to get my birthday dessert that came on a "Happy Birthday" plate!


Thanks Mom and Dad for the nice Peruvian lilies!

Post exam fun!

Yes, another exam sitting is over and done with...

to celebrate, I bought snowboard boots for myself!

This is going to be a bad recap of our Saturday because I have no pictures to post...
Anyways, yesterday, JJ and I rented a Zipcar to take a trip out to the 'burbs. We went to Oakbrook Terrace to the REI, took a brief walk through the Oakbrook Center and had lunch at Papagus (Greek restaurant). JJ's gyro combination was not so good but my chicken kabab was of juicy-excellence!

Next stop was Dick's Sporting Goods on the way to Premium Outlets where we tried on a whole bunch of snowboarding helmets (slowly getting outfitted for snowboarding trip!)

We didn't get to the outlet mall (all the way in Aurora!) until 3pm probably where we did our super-efficient shopping and I won again. Well, bad win really since it meant that I spent more but we bought what we needed...

Next stop was the Mitsuwa supermarket out in Schaumburg (yeah, we hit three burbs in ONE day!). It was unfortunate that we didn't arrive until 6:30pm so we really only had an hour and a half to eat dinner and check out the store. They had a mini food court in there but the Japanese ones had already closed. We ate from the Korean place and it was so satisfying! Yum! I want to go back for more!

Anyways, Zipcar is great. We'll be able to make more trips to the burbs!